DBX software installation manual

5/22/2008

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The first step to installation of the Abaco DBX meter software onto a PC involves “unzipping” a compressed folder that contains the software itself and the USB device drivers required to allow a PC to communicate with the DBX meter electronics. This compressed file may have either been sent with a DBX meter or may be downloaded from http://www.abacoperformance.com/ . Clicking on the software download link will launch a window similar to the one shown in Figure1.

Figure 1

Depending on your PC, this window may appear slightly different. Click “Save” to launch the “Save As” window (shown below) where you can decide where to save the Abaco Performance.zip file. It’s important to note where this file is saved so that It can be found for the next step in the installation process. The example in Figure 2 shows the Abaco file being saved in a “Downloads” folder created earlier.

Figure 2

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Now that the Abaco Performance.zip folder has been saved, it will need to be “unzipped” to open the setup files needed to install each of the software components. A .zip file or folder is a type of file or folder that has been compressed to take up less storage space or take less time for download. There are a number of different software options available to uncompress this type of folder so your particular “unzipping” procedure may look slightly different, but the end result should be the same. In Figure 3, the Abaco Performance zip folder was saved to a folder called “Downloads” and is now being “unzipped” by double clicking on the folder.

Figure 3

A warning to “Extract all” folders may show up as shown in Figure 4 – simply choose the “Extract all” option and the compressed files will be extracted.

Figure 4

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After unzipping, the “Abaco Performance” folder will contain 2 setup files shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5

The first setup file that needs to be executed is the CP210x_VCP_Win2K_XP_S2K3. This will install the DBX communication “drivers” on your PC. Click “Run” in the warning window shown in Figure 6. This driver needs to be installed before plugging the DBX meter into your PC.

Figure 6

The Silicon Laboratories Drivers Welcome screen will prompt you to continue by clicking “next” as shown in Figure 7.

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Figure 7

Next step is the License Agreement shown in Figure 8. To install the drivers, you must click the “I accept the terms” button indicated in Figure 8. Click “next” button to proceed.

Figure 8

Figure 9 shows the Destination Location screen – this is the location that the driver files will be installed. There should be no need to change this location. Click “next”.

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Figure 9

The “Install” button shown in Figure 10 should be clicked next.

Figure 10

Check the “Launch the CP210x VCP Driver Installer “box and then click the “finish” button in Figure 11 to launch the USB to UART Bridge Driver installer shown in Figure 12.

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Figure 11

Figure 12

The Installation process may take a few minutes.

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After the Driver Installer is finished, plug in the USB cable from your DBX meter to your PC. The message in Figure 13 should appear and then be followed shortly after with a similar message stating that the new hardware is “ready to use”.

Figure 13

In order for the DBX software to “find” the path to communicate with the DBX meter, you must specify the “COM” port that is to be used. This COM port must be 1-6 and can be set by following the steps below. Figure 14 shows the “System Properties” window that can be accessed by either “right clicking” on the “My Computer” icon or choosing “Properties” from the resulting menu.

Figure 14

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After opening the “System Properties” window, click on the “Hardware” tab to open the window shown in Figure 15. In the Hardware window, click the “Device Manager” button indicated in Figure 15,

Figure 15

The Device Manager window will open to reveal all components inside and attached to your PC. The component that needs attention is “Ports” (COM & LPT) – click the “+” indicated with the red arrow in Figure 16 to open the list of available COM ports. Figure 17 shows a list of COM ports as an example – your list may be slightly different, but should include “Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge (COM xx). This is shown with red arrow in Figure 17.

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Figure 16

Figure 17

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The COM port that has been assigned to the Silicon Labs driver in this example is COM 12. Only COM ports 1-6 can be used in the DBX programming software, so this COM port will have to be changed. If the COM port is already assigned to a number between 1 and 6, you do not need to change it, simply make a note of the COM port number and proceed to the DBX Software installation section. To change the Silicon Labs COM port, “double click” anywhere on the device description (highlighted in figure 18) to open the COM port properties window.

Figure 18

After “Double Clicking the Silicon Labs COM port, the Properties Window shown in Figure 19 will open. Clicking the “Port Settings” tab at the top of the window will open the next window (shown in Figure 20) in the sequence required to change the com port setting.

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Figure 19

Figure 20

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Circled in Figure 20 is the “Advanced” button which needs to be clicked to get to the point at which the COM port can be changed. Figure 21 shows the location of the drop down menu for COM port reassignment.

Figure 21

Clicking the down arrow of this pull down menu will list all available COM ports – see Figure 22. This example shows COM 12 highlighted since that was the original port that the driver installer used. This needs to be changed to COM 1-6 for the DBX software to recognize it. The example shows all COM ports already in use by other processes except COM 2. Clicking on COM 2 will assign it as the new port for the DBX Silicon Labs Communication Drivers.

Figure 22

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After clicking the appropriate COM port for you system (one that is between 1 and 6 and also not being used by another device), it will show up in the pull down menu box circled in Figure 23. Click the “OK” button to exit each of the screens. The new COM port assignment may not show up on the “Device Manager” list until it is refreshed or reopened. Example is shown in Figure 23.

Figure 23

Now that COM port drivers are installed and configured, you can proceed to DBX programming software installation.

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To install Abaco Performance DBX software on your PC, start by double clicking on the Setup.exe file to launch the Setup Wizard window shown in Figure 5.

Figure 24

Clicking the “Next >” option button will start the software install process by opening the Software License Agreement shown in Figure 25.

Figure 25

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To continue the software installation process, you must accept the agreement by first clicking the “I accept the agreement” checkbox and then clicking the “Next >” button. The setup process will then allow the option of choosing a destination folder in which the software will be installed on your PC. The destination folder will be C:\Program Files\Abaco Performance by default, but can be changed by typing a new destination in the box provided (shown in Figure 26) or by clicking the “Browse” button and choosing a pre existing folder.

Figure 26

The final window will open and simply clicking “Finish” will complete the DBX software install process.

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